Swarming Writers

Writers, Writers Everywhere… Paramount Studios was the scene of a mass writers picket. Paramount Studios were surrounded by a sea of people with red, white and black placards. And if the deafening car horns were any sign, the general support is big time.

On the lines there are not just writers. SAG(Screen Actors Guild) member are also out marching, which includes many people who do mostly background work. Such as, Channing Humphries who said, “I march when I can, but I made sure I would be here today.”

Jennie Tan (no relation to Amy), who lives in San Francisco started a fan site for the show “The Office.” She was glad she could come to Los Angeles and show her support.

“Well I am actually blogging live as we speak,” said Jennie. She will have the latest and the greatest about the strike and the show she loves, on her blog “officetally.com.”

Katy Ballard was in the midst of writing a pilot when the strike hit. So today she was out marching in support with her two dogs (Theo and Charlotte).

How close is this to ending? Well one writer had a sign that said $0.4 . When I asked him what that meant, he said,” that’s what it is all about, that’s how far apart we are”.

I went to sites such as United Hollywood and the Writers Guild of America to see if I could understand a little more.

On United Hollywood they had a comparison of the DGA(Directors Guild of America) contract and what the WGA (Writers Guild of America)is asking for, which they have since taken down.

Like they said; “We've taken down our earlier post comparing the economic values of the DGA deal summary vs. the WGA proposal.

The document we were linking to was an internal working paper, and the figures were premature. Since the comprehensive version of the DGA deal is still not available, final figures can't yet be accurately calculated. We don't feel that it's productive to the discussion to post until the figures are accurate.

United Hollywood regrets any confusion the posting may have caused.”

So what is holding up everybody? Technology! The very same technology that can make our lives easier is also holding things up. If adervertisers can track what people buy or even look to buy, I am sure a way can be found to track online viewing of movies, etc.

However at the heart of this it is a people issue. I called the WGA to find they have 7,771 dues paying members with the WGA West. There is also WGA East, which I would imagine has a similar member count. Now all these are dues paying members, working or not at the time of the strike. Anyway before I lose myself in statistics, let’s get back to the people.

And it is people who watch the shows and download and all the other stuff. And even as the rain began the people kept picketing.

These people just want to be heard. And it seems some studio heads are listening, some individual studio heads are taking private talks on how to get back to the bargaining table

So maybe these corporations can see beyond the bottom line and to the people, because what are corporations other than people working toward a common goal. I bet if you put your creative heads together you could actually solve this thing and even help the rest of corporate America to wake up.